Oenological lexicon: the ten most abused and (often) least understood words around wine

Words have a precise meanings that centuries of language have helped to sculpt.

Or at least they should have it.

Too bad that in reality, more often than we think we use words of which we ignore the real meaning, giving them improper or out of context meanings.

In this, wine world, an environment that moreover brings with it an air of ancient aristocracy, is a context that is certainly no exception, indeed it’s full of abstruse and difficult to understand terms, as well as words that would also be simple to comprehend but which are used haphazardly.

The following is a brief but meaningful summary of the most abused and often less understood and understandable “words of wine”.

As a rankings lover – as well as to add a pinch of suspense – I made a personal top ten, starting from the tenth position up to the top. Are you curious to discover it?

 

 

10. VARIETAL

We leave smoothly, almost as if we were warming up. Adjective that indicates a wine that respects the typical characteristics (it would be better to say primary, but we should open another topic and it is better not to dwell too much ...) of the vines that compose it, but which, in a broader meaning, can also mean a wine that demontrates in the glass the characters of the land from which it comes. Simple isn't it?

 

9.FRAGRANT

Are we talking about wine or a brioche? What does this decidedly "food" term have to do with the content of a bottle? In reality, a relationship exists, and can be found in the sensations that – within the wine profile – refer to the activity of yeasts, which are expressed through notes of fresh bread crust or croissant. Characteristics that are therefore more to be found in wines obtained by refermentation in the bottle, such as Classic Method Sparkling Wines or Ancestral Method sparkling wines. In a more general meaning, the adjective is used to provide a sensation of general olfactory freshness, therefore in association with wines marked by intense fruity and floral aromas.

 

8.BARRIQUE

This seems easy, also because when it comes to wine you hear it mentioned in practically every situation. For many the solution for all evils, for others a devil in the form of wood. As always, the truth is halfway there (“in media stat virtus”, the ancients said), but beyond ideological/philosophical issues, what exactly is a barrique? It is a small container for wine aging, but not small by chance, but an oak barrel (French or American) of capacity - depending on the various types and geographical areas of use – variable from 190 to 260L. The most common are the Bordeaux barrique (225L) and the Burgundian (228L), also called piéce. If at this point you were wondering what it is for, when it is used and what characters it brings to wine, I refer you to another blog article.

https://iviaggiatorigourmet.blogspot.com/2020/09/botte-grande-o-barrique.html

7.BIODYNAMICS

Let's start to get serious about it, talking about a very “fashionable” term but also with blurred outlines. A biodynamic wine is a wine that follows the dictates of biodynamics, matter - but certainly not science - developed starting from the ideas of the Austrian theosophist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who aims to achieve an agriculture in which crops are in balance with the surrounding ecosystem through a series of initiatives to be carried out both in the vineyard and in the cellar. In substance, beyond the ethical/philosophical aspect, however, a correlation between biodynamic practices and the quality of the product obtained from them has never been demonstrated, to the point that - like any other wine produced from conventional agriculture - there are biodynamic wines of heavenly quality (Does La Romanée-Conti tell you something?) but also real crap.

 

6.ACIDITY

To those who approach this "strange" world, seeing this term associated with important and expensive wines, moreover with a decidedly positive character, may seem a bizarre. In reality, acidity doesn’t mean a wine defect, but a fundamental component of it due to the presence of some types of acids, both those already contained in the grapes and those deriving from the fermentation process. A high acidity translates into a general lightening of the wine, capable of giving freshness to the palate and harmony and balance to wines that are in themselves full-bodied. But above all, an important acidity is the main indicator of the longevity of the wine. There’s a lot to tell about this last theme, but to avoid going off topic I prefer to stop here.

 

5.TANNIC

A difficult theme for many beginners, both because it’s associated with an almost peculiar characteristic of wine, and for the fact that it represents an aspect that moves away from that immediate pleasantness that one approaches this world tends to seek in glass. A tannic wine is by assonance rich in tannins, polyphenolic substances contained in the grape and in the stalks, which correspond to a general sensation of astringency. In short, the wine appeals to the mouth, arriving in some extreme cases almost paralyzing your facial muscles during tasting. In addition to those due to the starting grapes, there is also another category of tannins, resulting from the interaction between wine and wood in which it ages, but being decidedly more "sweet and gentle" they certainly do not represent a stumbling block for the beginners.

 

 

4.ETEREO

The ether is the air, or rather the medium, through which electromagnetic phenomena are propagated, as well as light, and with ethereal we refer to something that carries with it a spiritual character. What does it have to do with wine? Nothing, because is another type that determines its meaning, that is diethylic ether. A compound featured by a typical and recognizable pungent odor, which is used as a reference to describe wines in which - most of the time following aging - the aromas and alcoholic components seem fused as if they were a whole, recalling particular and elegant smells of nail polish, solvents or sealing wax.

 

 

3.MINERAL

Here we start to get serious. One of the coolest terms to use in relation to the characteristics of a wine but of which no one can provide a precise and above all unanimously recognized meaning. Or rather, we all use it, but most of the time uncorrectly. Beyond this, it is precisely the term that leads us astray, since it refers to something (minerals) in the practically odorless substance. A mineral wine is historically associated with the "minerality" of the soils in which its grapes grow and which translates into chalky, pungent and hydrocarbon aromas and a notable flavor on the palate. In reality there is no scientific evidence that demonstrates this correlation, but both for the poetry that we like to associate with wine and for intelligent marketing operations, the term the adjective is still used today in association with wines with the above characteristics described.

 

2.TERROIR

We are at the terms that better than any other represents and certifies the elevation of wine to something superior to a simple food. It’s talked about everywhere, sometimes even to get out of situations in which giving an answer or a motivation is not at all easy. But beyond this, what is the terroir? And why is it a term of capital importance for the world of wine? By definition, it is "a geographical area in which a series of factors such as natural, physical and chemical conditions, associated with the climate, the soil but also the wine making traditions, allow the creation of wines that can be identified by the unique characteristics of their territoriality". Basically, a sort of place of great value and potential within which to produce wine, an environment that, as if by magic, is capable of reproducing and restoring unique and unrepeatable characters outside of it.

1.NATURAL

I know that you are wondering: "How, after nine words that nobody uses except those who spend their time turning the wine in the glass, you come up with the most banal adjective (almost natural, I one might say) of the world?".

Evidently there is a reason, given that if you think about it well it’s giant abuse, one of the greatest atrocities that can be affirmed in relation to the Bacco’s world: associate the adjective natural with the word WINE. And mind you, the wine, that is the final product of a series of processes that of natural, where the term means, that is "faithful to the dictates of Nature", there is really no nothing at all. Respect for nature and the land from which everything originates is one thing - good and right I would add - but the concept of natural wine is a clear contradiction in terms, a decoy able to transform sacrosanct concepts of environmental sustainability into pure operation of marketing. Unless there is someone able to demonstrate that without human intervention the vine – climbingand wild plant – tends to take the bonsai form to which we oblige it in the most varied forms of farming. Or that once the grapes are harvested and squeezed they transform, almost by magic and without human intervention, into wine rather than vinegar. For the series “Nature does many wonderful things, but it doesn't make wine”.